Leaving America Makes Americans Better | Monologue | Topic

I love the idea that you can learn about
your country by leaving it one result of my travels is I am more confident than
ever that this is my home when I come back to the United States this is where
I belong I’m an American but because I’ve left it and looked at it from a
distance I’ve also learned that there are options to what we think are just
Givens and that it is really fun to take home what I think is the most beautiful
souvenir and that’s that broader perspective and then implement that here
as an activated citizen of this country I think that’s good citizenship America
has this super nationalistic confidence we’re thoughtful well-educated people
actually think we are exceptional if you were raised thinking the world is a
pyramid with the United States on top and everybody else should figure it out
when you go traveling you realize the only thing exceptional about the
population of the United States of America is our ability to think that
we’re exceptional in God’s eyes I think there’s a lot of fear in the United
States and for a lot of Americans that’s scary to leave our country I’ve thought
about this a lot lately and a fear really is for people who don’t get out
very much their worldview is shaped by watching commercial news media they look
at some terrible event and they think that that part of the world is dangerous
my worldview is shaped by sharing a meal with somebody who has a different
religion and a different outlook who lives in a country with a different kind
of government who was on the other side of the planet there’s a heck of a lot
more good than there is bad and when we travel we celebrate diversity rather
than being afraid of it everybody doesn’t have the American
Dream I have the American Dream I like the American Dream but my friends in sri
lanka helped the sri lankan dream and my friends and thailand have the thai dream
that’s a beautiful thing why wrote a book called travel as a political act
and fundamental to that is those of us who travel we come
we try to help our neighbors recognize that we’re all in this together and we
can work with the other 96% of humanity it can have empathy for people and then
we can be not only better citizens of the planet but I think in a long-term
safer and more secure in our own country when I go to Egypt when I go to the West
Bank Palestine when I go to Cuba people get to know in America and it makes it
tougher for their propaganda to demonize us and when I come home it makes it
tougher for our propaganda to dehumanize them and that is a fundamental benefit
some people call it America bashing I call it America loving